


Alliance

by Cicuta_virosa



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, First Time, Friends to Enemies, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Manipulative Sinestro, Possessive Sinestro, Rape/Non-con Elements, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:04:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17577905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cicuta_virosa/pseuds/Cicuta_virosa
Summary: Perhaps it's because he searchs atonement for the whole Parallax's horrors. Perhaps it's masochism.The why is not important, the only important thing is that now, Hal is Sinistro' spouse. But he can endure it, like he endured everything else the universe threw at him.





	1. Hal POV

Years of war and it came to that. An arranged marriage. A soldier of Oa sent like a victim to the Sinistro Corp, as a sacrificial lamb. Sent to Sinistro.

It was supposed to be a drawing of lots, conducted in front of the whole Corp. Every celibate Lantern, the ones physically compatible, could be chosen by fate. There had been whispers in the Corp when the decision had been taken, but what other solution would have been possible?

The Star Sapphire had fallen. Nobody knew where Kyle was. The Indigo corp had lost half its members.

The war against the Blackest Night wasn’t getting well, and only a close alliance between the surviving Corps could help.

Instead of letting another poor soul throw his or her life into this comedy, Hal had volunteered.

Perhaps his friends were right.

Perhaps his desire to atone for his past crimes, when he had been the puppet of Parallax, would kill him one day.

But he couldn’t imagine burdening another Lantern with that. Not when he had killed so much of them when he was too weak to resist Parallax. If he could save one of them, he would.

“It’s your worst idea _ever_ ,” Guy had commented, “and you’re not exactly missing in this category.”

“Your support is noted and appreciated.”

“No, but seriously? He was your mentor, your friend, then your enemy-”

“I was there, I don’t need a summary.”

“-and now you’re gonna marry the guy. Hal, are you even bi?”

“It’s a political wedding, not an invitation for a romp in the hay.”

“Yeah, because our less favourite scarlet son of a bitch won’t appreciate the occasion to hurt you.”

Hal’s heart had done a strange thing in his chest. He had known for years he could die by Sinistro’s hand, but that? Would really Sinistro…..When he had offered his name to the Guardians for that assignment, he had never, not for a second, imagined it was a risk, but suddenly, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

Guy’s face had taken an expression which Hal had hated and he had stopped the conversation, despite his friend efforts to rekindle it.

Sinistro hadn’t come himself to the wedding, a subtle insult to Hal’s face and Hal had put his hand into Arkillo’s, playing Sinistro’s representative, and he had sworn loyalty to his new spouse.

Spouse! Ah! He wasn’t dumb enough to believe he was something else than an hostage used by Sinistro to be sure the Green Lantern Corp wouldn’t turn against him.

His new spouse…His new master would have been more correct. But Hal would endure, like he had endured everything else, and he had every intention to free himself when Nekron was defeated.

He had learned the vows and said his goodbye to the League and the Corps and refused the League’s offer to come to the wedding. The other Lanterns already had to witness this parody, it was enough. He was happy nobody had been stupid enough to write love into the vows. It was enough he was sent into an unbalanced marriage with a foe.

And now here he was.

Waiting for his new Master, on the moon which the Sinistrop Corp used as their base. He would have thought he would have been thrown in a cage the minute of their arrival, but it was a simple bedroom. It was so impersonal that had first, he had believed it was an empty room prepared for him, until he had found the clothes.

He was in Sinistro’s room.

Perhaps he should have listened to Guy.

For a second, he imagined suiting up, exploding the porthole and running away, but for a second only.

He wouldn’t run in fear of his old enemy. And if things turned unpleasant, he would…well, he would find a way to handle it. He had been a POW before. He still remembered what had happened when Rocket-Man, Cowgirl and he had been prisoners. When the shrink had tried to pry his mind open about it, the only thing he had found to say was that it was happy he had been the only one to endure that, and that their evasion had spared the other two pilots.

Hal had endured rape before, and he would again if necessary.

Even at the hands of his old friend. Sinistro would need him alive and Hal could handle everything else.

He was there in his reflexions when the door opened.

Hal put on his lips his most shit-eating grin and turned around.


	2. Sinestro POV

Sinestro had had two friends in his life. Abin Sur, first, his mentor, his brother in law, his fellow Lantern. And then Jordan, the earth man. Disrespectful, exasperating, so dangerous Jordan, who wielded the green light as a blunt instrument. Sinestro was sure Jordan would get himself killed so quick it would be a record in the Corps’s history.

Instead, Jordan thrived, developed, the core of his being cleared of slag. Sinestro was fascinated, and he let Jordan come too close, see too much, and lost Korugar for price of his arrogance.

Imprisoned in the Central Battery, he prepared Hal Jordan’s end with Paralax, the fall from grace of the brightest of the lanterns, and years of war followed, before Hal Jordan rose again, brightest than ever, and Sinestro was almost burnt by that emerald light.

No one, not ever his wife, ever intertwined his life so much with Sinestro’s own life. And now, when the Blackest Night war is raging across the galaxy, Sinestro can see that he doesn’t hate Jordan like he once did. They’re too different and similar, two sides of a warrior, two sides of a sentient being. Their destinies may have taken different paths, but they’re still tethered to each other.

It was a revelation when Jordan visited him, at the end of what the universe called the Sinestro Corp War, in the sciencell of Oa.

It had been years since they saw each other without coming to blows, years since Sinestro could really observe his face. Even with the mask, Jordan was an open book. So easily manipulated too. As Sinestro planted the seeds of what would come, a small part of him, a part he believed dead, had reared his head.

Jordan would certainly die in the incoming war and Sinestro, in that moment, regretted it, almost. He hoped it was him. He hoped he would be the one to kill Jordan. With their history, everything else would be like an unfinished tale.

Then the war came. Jordan was taken by the Red Light, then saved by the Blue, and the universe descended into chaos. Every time they tangled in battle, first as adversaries, then as reluctant allies as all the Light allied against the Night, Sinestro saw his feelings evolve.

He wanted to be the one to kill Jordan, then it became a desire to see Jordan a member of his Corps, wearing his colours. Sinestro wanted, with a strength of greed that would have elected him for the Orange part of the Spectrum! He remembered their beginnings, how good it was when Jordan fell in line, followed his orders. It didn’t happen so much. With Jordan, you had to earn it. That made it so precious. That man following orders…. Sinestro remembered. To have Hal Jordan’s trust and faith, there were no liquors in the universe more intoxicating.

It was being weighted and being found worthy. And when Jordan gave himself, he gave everything he was. It enraged Sinestro to think how not worthy the Guardians were of Jordan.

Little by little, Sinestro realized he would swap hundreds of idiots wearing his colours for a chance of Jordan wearing them. But Jordan bleed green more than blood those days. He would never be a member of the Yellow Corps.

When it became clear the universe wouldn’t survive without a closer alliance between the surviving corps, Sinestro saw his chance. He couldn’t make Jordan a Yellow Lantern, his second, like he would have desired.

But he could have Jordan another way. It was such an earth idea, a wedding. And, like he had predicted, Jordan throw in his name as a sacrificial lamb. Sinestro didn’t go to the ceremony itself. He refused to see Hal’s face during it. It would be a symphony of suffering and martyrdom.

But it was fine.

Sinestro could plan. Sinestro could be patient, could take his time. Sinestro could guide him, once Hal was surrounded by enemies and Sinestro the only one he could trust, even if he didn’t believe it first.

Jordan would be his, body, soul, light, and he would love it, ask for more, and never, ever, want to fly away again.


	3. Hal POV

Hal’ smirk was wiped out by surprise. It was Sinestro, yes, and also a billion of boxes floating behind him. And Sinestro looked exhausted, and not jubilant like Hal would have thought. Years ago, when Hal was a rookie discovering the corps, he wouldn’t have identified the deeper red on the skin around the eyes and the mouth for a sign of exhaustion in native of Korugarian, like he could now. Sinestro was still standing as proud and stern as ever, his back as straight as a ruler, but age didn’t let him cheat as much as before.

Hal suddenly realized his old enemy was getting old.

That they were getting old.

The day one of them wouldn’t be quick enough was getting closer.

“Jordan,” Sinestro said, and the jubilant remarks Hal had anticipated, about the Green Lantern Corps, reduced to whore out one of their members, never came.

Sinestro touched a button on the computer on the wall and said: “I want your opinion on something.”

“What?!”

“Your opinion, Jordan. You’re usually quick to inflict it on me, on everyone in fact, so for once, it’s asked of you, it should make you happy.”

“If it’s about Oa’s planetary defence-“

“Don’t be ridiculous, I have better things to do than attack our old slavers for now.”

“Don’t call them that.”

“What is that earth saying- ah yes – if the shoe fits…?”

Probably to stop the discussion before it became arguing, Sinestro called an image on the wall. It was solar system, very classical, four big planets, and a yellow sun. The image went closer to the planet closest to the sun.

“This is Nabuav,” Sinestro started, and Hal didn’t interrupt. He knew how his old enemy was, when the monologuing habits took him. No force in the entire galaxy would make him get to the point faster. When they had been mentor and protégé, Hal found that exasperating. Now, he classified that in the “Villain's habits” that should have given him doubts about Sinestro’s moral backbone long before their falling out.

“This is a planet,” Sinestro started again, “whose government had the smart idea to ask my Corps for protection. They are deep into the sector that your Corps name 1269, and achieved a few generations ago planetary alliance, under the leadership of a particularly enterprising young being. Their system is close of the way most of your planet endure democracy, and their leaders are elected. A few of them have been descendent of this being, but it’s most because of the love people have for the family than voters fraud. It helps that those descendants are, most of the time, choosing a career in public service..”

Hal nodded, in a, vain, hope, to see Sinestro get to the interesting part before giving him the whole planet last 200 years history. Here was something else Hal Fucking Jordan knew about that new husband/master/kidnapper/disappointment of him, which he would have bet almost everything no one in the Sinestro Corp knew: Sinestro was the biggest history nerd. Younger Hal had found that infinitely amusing.

“And three months ago, their current leader, the latest scion of this family has been murdered.”

That was way more interesting that any genealogist tale, in Hal’s mind, but he refused to let Sinestro see it. The Yellow Lantern was busy searching something in the box, and Hal couldn’t stop himself for looking, curious. He suddenly realized he was much closer from his old enemy that at the beginning and tensed, but the other was still busy with his boxes, and didn’t seem decided to ask for any marital duty or other stupidity like that, so Hal let himself fall into a chair and accepted some documents.

“This is everything they sent to us when they failed to find the culprit. I immediately send a few of my Corpsemen.”

“Let me guess, pretty good to instil fear, pretty awful for police work.”

“I must admit their performance in this particular task has been less than stellar. They came back with a confession and an execution.”

“And sometimes after, this planet you want to keep under your thumb realized the executed killer of their favourite child hadn’t been guilty and now they think you couldn’t care less about their alliance.”

“It has been the most recent opinion on this world, yes.”

“But you use fear. What do you care if some people on that particular world see you for the sociopath you are?”

Hal saw the snarl on his enemy lips and closed his fist, his ring ready, but to his intense surprise, the other controlled himself.

“The Green Lantern aren’t the only one struggling in their fight against the Black Lantern. I don’t have enough Yellow Lantern right now to properly make every world fall in line. The resources we need in this war must come willingly.”

“And this world?”

“Produce some of the metals used to forge our lantern.”

Hal leaned against the table.

“That’s probably not something you should admit to a member of the Green Lantern Corps.”

“I wouldn’t admit to another. But I’ve known you a very long time. And you wouldn’t have entered this alliance if you didn’t know how vital it is for the universe survival that our two Corps work together. You won’t reveal our weakness. Not until the end of the war.”

Hal stayed silent.

This mark of almost trust really wasn’t how he had imagined this night would go. And he had always been in the habits to repay trust with trust, it was written in his DNA, in his sense of fair play.

“Fine,” he said, “his voice dry, “I will search for your killer.”

“Perfect,” Sinestro said, heading for the door.

“Wait, you’re going?”

“I have other duties tonight. If you need to rest before going, people aren’t in the habits to enter my apartments. Someone should deliver food if you ask the computer, but I suggest scanning it for poison with your ring. Not everyone in my Corps is overjoyed by your presence.”

“But-?”

Sinestro turned to him, clearly exasperated.

“What?”

“Eh, I –,” and since Hal didn’t know how to express how simple it was, how police work wasn’t what he had been ready to endure to make this work, he went back to the murder’s case.

“I’m not bringing back the perp here for your people to torture for fun.”

“Let their judiciary service have them; for all I care. But bring me peace on that world, Jordan,” Sinestro said.

Hal let himself fall on the bed and put his head between his hands. Images of unwanted hands on his body rose to his mind, memories of the days of captivity on earth. Cowgirl and Rocketman knew, they had tried to speak about it, but he had always deflected, like he had done with the shrink the Air Force had forced on him. Now he thought it was perhaps a mistake, because never before had he thought Sinestro would try that with him, and here, for a second, he had been sure the other man would make him pay that way years of antagonism.

Instead, his old mentor wanted police work from him!

Hal took a careful breath, another, then stood up again and let the green light form around him.

Time to go to work.


	4. Sinestro Pov

 

 

When Sinestro meet Hal Jordan for the first time, he thought him nothing more than an ape who had learned to put on clothes and use cutlery.

It enraged him to think of that ape using Abin’s ring.

Then he saw him fly.

In all his years as a Green Lantern, then as a Yellow Lantern and almost everything in between, he never, never, saw someone fly like Jordan. It was the beginning of his fascination for the human.

Even when he tried to murder the other, he admitted the human flew with an unknown grace. If they survive the war, when he will have succeed in making Jordan understand that his place is with Sinestro and not against him, he will let Soranik handle the Yellow Corps for a time, and he will go flying with Jordan, to the fringe of the known universe.

The proximity sensors of their base bipped. Green Lantern in approach. An almost smile on his lips, Sinestro chose to abandon his work for the balcony, to see Jordan arrives. The smile died immediately.

It couldn’t be Jordan. That flying lacked the panache of….of his husband. Sinestro’ snarl was firmly in place when Gardner touched the balcony.

“What are you doing here?”

“What’s the problem, not delighted to see me?”

Sinestro’s glare went up a notch. Lesser beings had run in face of that glare, but if there was something he admitted Gardner had in spade, it was courage.

Probably by lack of imagination and real understanding of the things Sinestro could do to him, but still courage.

“Not here for you, ugly mug, just to be sure you didn’t murder my friend in his sleep,” Gardner said.

“Jordan isn’t here.”

“What?! You little socio-“

“He went on a mission for me. Not that I’m supposed to be held accountable to you for my husband’s fate.”

Gardner took a step in his direction, sparks flying from his ring, and violence written on his face. How the Green Lantern Corps ever choose him was an ongoing mystery for Sinestro. In his time, the standards had been much more draconian.

“If you hurt him-“

“Oh, is that what you human call shovel talk? You’re way too late Gardner, he’s mine now and nothing you could do will ever change that. You could offer to run away with him and he would refuse, bound by his honour.”

Strangely, that made Gardner stop. A sound which sounded suspiciously like a strangled laugh escaped his lips.

“So, that’s like that.”

Sinestro arched an eyebrow. Gardner’s eyes were studying his face.

“I find your choice of words very interesting,” Gardner said, then after a few seconds of silence he added: “I was more worried about you _murdering_ him, but I can totally be threatening you about his virtue, even if I am a few decades late.”

Sinestro’s thought were racing. He had played that badly. Of course, Gardner was worried about his fellow Green Lantern’s life, and Sinestro’s possessive reactions were a clue even a man with such a slow learning curve would catch.

“I don’t-“

“No need to ruffle your feathers like that, Yellow fucker.”

Gardner jumped over the rail of the balcony and hovered there, green light spilling of him.

“I will come back,” he said, “and my friend better look overjoyed of his life on your crazy moon or I will break your face and your Corps.”

Something passed in his eyes, like a hesitation. It was the first time Sinestro saw something like that on the man.

“Human are pretty big on consent,” he said and Sinestro spluttered in indignation, dozens of answers fighting on his tongue.

“Touch him in a way he doesn’t want and no intergalactic war or peace treaty will stop the Corps to make you Objective Numero Uno, ugly mug. What we have brewing for Nekron and Black Hand will seem like a walk in the park in comparison” Gardner said again, then he took off, leaving Sinestro with so much questions and terrible suspicions.


	5. Hal POV

The thing was, Hal knew he was smart. He had graduated more than honourably at the Academy, and test pilot? There was more in that that pushing a few buttons and having the stomach for the G planes pushed.

But those last years, he had felt more like a weapon than anything else. The Corp was struggling against menaces after menaces and they never had time to catch their breath and think.

So, that, basic police work, that was…pleasant.

He had forgotten how much it was good to engage his brain, search for clues, listen to people, to what they said and what they lied about, and even what they didn’t realize they would have said.

It was Sinestro that had taught him, all those years ago. He had taken under his wing a new Lantern who just knew how to flight and fight, and shown him what made people click, how to act to reassure victims, how to find criminals using his brain, and not just shaking down every seedy bar this side of the Milky Way. In retrospect; the aspects of Sinestro that had made him a good Lantern were the same that made him a terrifying criminal. He understood people in a way Hal didn’t. And Hal hoped he never would, because Sinestro understood them the same way an entomologist understood an insect.

Sinestro understood people, but he never believed in them. That’s why he never went anywhere without his ring, the green first, the yellow now.

Not like Hal.

Hal had put his ring in his locker every time he climbed into a cockpit, and for years, it hadn’t been a problem. Until that day. Until him, Cowgirl and Rocketman were down in Russia, their planes burning. Sinestro would never have been taken like that. Prisoner of war. How Hal had wished for his ring. He had thought he understood pain before. He had been terribly hurt before, as a Lantern, hurt in battle so terribly only Oan medicine had saved him. But that…he could have handled fire and electricity and water, but the truth was, the moment his torturers had ripped his pants and taken pleasure in his tied body, he had come closer to breaking than he ever did, in whatever intergalactic battle he had been.

And now, as he came back to the Sinestro Corp stronghold, the case resolved, the murderer jailed on their planet, he understood the question Guy had asked before the weeding.

Could Hal handle that a second time? If Sinestro took from him without permission, would Hal shatter? He didn’t think Sinestro was that sort of being, but he hadn’t thought him capable of being a dictator either, and how wrong he had been! People surprised you, in good, in bad. He didn’t think Sinestro would touch anyone without their enthusiastic consent, but he didn’t think either Guy would understood what he had endured, without Hal telling him. But Guy had always been smarter than people gave him credit; and he had been a cop. Cops were trained to notice abuse.

Did Sinestro know? Had he seen Hal and known?

No.

Thinking that way was the path to madness. Better to concentrate on what he knew. Everybody on this world hated him and wanted him dead, and Sinestro wanted…probably a hostage. Perhaps someone to talk about that wasn’t a crazy, foaming at the mouth psychopath.

Hal touched down at the entry of the palace. He wasn't exactly happy to live with a bunch of murderers, but he wouldn’t hide in Sinestro’s rooms. Rubbing their ugly faces in his presence was more his style. He could feel their gazes, the poison of it, the anger, the hat, as he went from room to room, and he put an extra spring in his steps for it, until, at the centre of the maze of rooms, he found Sinestro.

The other man nodded to him, but didn’t stop debating with his advisors. Hal went closer, peeking over their shoulders to observe the battle plans, curious to see if Sinestro would stop him, but the other just moved to let him have a better view and all the advisors scowled for it, but, probably wisely with how short Sinestro’s fuse could be sometimes, when his judgement was questioned, didn’t say anything.

“Found our guy. Who was a gall,” Hal said after a moment.

“Of course, you did,” Sinestro answered, like he hadn’t doubted his success for a minute and Hal felt first validation, then anger, because he wasn’t a puppy in need of praise.

Sinestro enlarged the future battlefield image on the screen.

“Tell me,” he said, “look at that and tell me your thoughts.”

“Aren’t you supposed to think I’m a brainless idiot?”

“You’re the man I never succeeded in defeating because I can’t think the way you do. I scheme too much, and you not enough. So, you’re probably the best person to review a battle plan born from my mind.”

Hal gave him a surprised gaze, but, well, it was to defeat the Black Lanterns. And it was true that Sinestro had never succeed in defeating him.

It was a comforting thought in that world hating him and Hal only kept the advisors leaving the room in the corner of his eye for the habits of it. In that second, he trusted Sinestro to have his back.

Whtihout a word, Hal leaned down on the plan.  


	6. Hal POV

Another day.

Another battle.

Green and Yellow, and the few surviving members of other Corps, against Black.

And, for the first time, a semblance of victory.

Oh, a victory bought with blood, too much blood, so much blood, but for the first time, some Black Lanterns had been annihilated.

It wasn’t enough, it would never be enough, but just for one night, the universe got to forget the horrors of tomorrow. The two contingents of Lantern, bloodied, exhausted, fell into alcohol like they were searching for the limit of their liver, or the equivalent organ, graciously offered by the planet they had saved.

It was good, for once, to have something to celebrate, even if it was very certainly a momentary reprise.

Sitting on the edge of the palace’s roof, in that planet whose name he couldn’t even remember, Hal kept an eye on the celebration. He understood the need, after months of lost battles and lost civilians, after months of war, but he didn’t want to join.

Every time he saw another Green Lantern, he felt like they pitied him, because that Alliance had been bought with Hal, like some sort of sacrificial virgin.

Yes, Sinestro hadn’t touched him, but Hal still felt like some sort of ….

He preferred not to think about it, even if none of the Green Corps had talked about it, even if they probably didn’t think of him that way, like he did, almost dirty.

He turned when the yellow light signalled the presence of a Sinestro Corps Members. And of course, it was Sinestro himself, possibly the Lantern Hal wanted to see the less in the whole galaxy.

“What’s that?” He asked, seeing two glasses in his husband’s hand. They were full, because of course Sinestro was the sort of jerk who flew so fluid not a drop spilled.

“A victory drink, from Korugar. I didn’t feel like the press of so many people, and I thought you could desire the same solitude.”

“It’s not exactly solitude if you’re here,” Hal remarked, but he accepted the drink, and didn’t say anything more when Sinestro seated himself close enough to touch.

Sinestro was always close, those days, like Hal was a black hole and Sinestro the ship caught in the gravitational pull, but Hal had remarked he never touched him, except once in battle to protect him. Had they touched, before, when they were mentor and young Lantern? He couldn’t remember.

Hal had long forgotten his initial fear about what Sinestro could ask of him, it was just…it was just battles, back to back, it was knowing the other would be just there in time if they needed him, it was like long ago, when he was a rookie and Sinestro could have built the Central Battery himself, for all Hal admired him.

They fought, like they had in the past too, yelling sarcasm and veiled insults in front of the whole Yellow Corps Council, and it felt like banter, like a prelude, like stretching muscles long forgotten.

And taking orders from him was less difficult than he had thought. Sinestro was a lot of things, not all of them good, but he never had been a sloppy tactician. His plans were always brilliant, and dangerous, and Hal launched himself across the stars on his orders without hesitating. He knew the risks. He knew Sinestro could be ruthless and one day make a call Hal couldn’t live with.

But for now, Sinestro always saved as many lives as he could, and Hal appreciated the way he could lose himself in the fight and know that Sinestro handled the moving of the pieces. Hal had never wanted to led armies, he had only wanted to make a difference. And here, he could, and it was easy because he knew Sinestro would always jungle the parts Hal couldn’t.

Perhaps that was trust. He had been burnt in his trust for the Guardians too many time to recognize it anymore.

That night, when his drink was gone and he went to bed, he touched Sinestro, just once, patting his shoulder in a silent good night. As he floated from the roof, he couldn’t see the triumph in Sinestro’s eyes.


End file.
